Browsing by Author "Mwaifuge, Eliah S."
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Item Art and History: Ebrahim Hussein's Kinjeketile(The Department of History and Archaeology, University of Dar es Salaam and The Historical Association of Tanzania, 2009) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Item Beliefs and the Spiritual World: Socio-cultural and Material Conditions of Tanzania’s Occult Fiction(Taylor and Francis, 2018) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper examines how traditional beliefs and spirituality inform and are represented in A. M Hokororo's Salma's Spirit (1997), A. S. Mmasi's Satanic Tortures (1998) and I. Yohana's Tears from a Lonely Heart (2013). The paper proceeds from the assumption that these works expose the link between beliefs and the spiritual world on the one hand, and social and historical conditions on the other. Using an eclectic approach due to the multifaceted and multi-disciplinary nature of issues covered in the works, the paper explores how these beliefs serve as a source of the authors' materials and inform the thematisation and characterisation of their works. Specifically, the paper looks at how local beliefs influence characterisation and thematisation in Salma's Spirit, Satanic Tortures and Tears from a Lonely Heart. It argues that the authors use beliefs to account for the actions of characters and concretise the themes behind the novels’ rhetorical agenda.Item Democracy and Good Governance in PB Mayega’s ‘The People’s Schoolmaster’(JOAAG, 2011) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This essay uses P.B. Mayega’s The People’s Schoolmaster, which exposes the true face of democracy in many African countries. The essay focuses on Mayega’s fictional account because fiction in Africa tends to paint a more realistic picture about democracy in Africa. It is commonly accepted that democracy and good governance are necessary development tools, whether in a developed or developing country. Whereas there is ample evidence in the Western world to illustrate that this democratic principle does actually work when put into practice, in developing countries, especially in Africa, evidence on the ground demonstrates otherwise. Though many African countries profess and market themselves as democratic nations, they fail to implement democratic principles. The kind of democracy practiced in many African countries is largely symbolic and cosmetic and stifles rather than promote democratic principles.Item Disciplacement and Identity Formation in Allen Sawaya's Destined to Fame(Global Journal of English Language and Literature, 2016-09-16) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper explores the search for identity, displacement and belonging in Allen Sawaya’s Destined to Fame. The novel destined to fame depicts the world as a site of horror and interrogates the way the notions of identity, displacement and belonging affect an individual. In the novel, Sawaya emphasizes that the notions of identity, displacement and belonging are shaped by social and political situations which in turn result into emotional experiences or attachment to the affected individual. Through the protagonist William Forster- an African adopted child living in the UK, this paper argues that even though an individual can belong to the world but that individual can not belong home. This paper uses the postcolonial theory because the issues of identity, displacement or unhomliness and belonging are central topics in postcolonial thoughts.Item Dramatizing Aborted Ritual: Postmodernist Imaginings in Wole Soyinka's Death and the Kings Horseman(UNISA, 2017) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.; Omigbule, Morufu B.Death and King’s Horseman showcases a condition of cultural rupture. Wole Soyinka’s manner of realizing this is through theoretical adventure that reveals his own very postmodernist imaginings, perhaps prior to the play’s composition but certainly at “the creative furor”. Recognizing and focusing on an overriding theoretical influence in a composite artistic production such as Death would significantly defuse the burden of interpreting Death which on its own constitutes a distinct unit in Soyinka’s repertoire of creative writings labelled as complex and obscure. The present study reveals the play’s robust discursive worth by identifying and exploring its postmodernist constitutive parameters. As the study further reinforces the claim that the playwright is cultural analyst of the avant-gardist category, the postmodernist figuration of the play deserves to be noted for all it entails and should inspire renewed criticism of the text, whose canonical status promises a prolonged regime in African and world literary studies.Item Edwin Mtei's From a Goatherd to Governor and the Politics of Representation(Galda Verlag, 2016) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Item Fasihi ya Kiswahili na rushwa Tanzania: Thomas A. R. Kamugisha na Kitu Kidogo Tu(Idara ya Kiswahili, Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, 2006) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Makala hii inajaribu kuelezea mchango wa fasihi ya Kiswahili katika kuijadili rushwa. Kwa kurejea kwenye Riwaya ya Thomas A.R. Kamugisha Kitu Kidogo tu! makala hii inasawilisha miongo takribani mitatu ya dhana ya “kitu kidogo” na athari zake kwa jamii ya Tanzania. Kwa kuijadili riwaya ya Kitu Kidogo tu! makala hii inajaribu pia kutoa picha ya Tanzania ya leo na kesho.Item German Colonialism, Memory and Ebrahim Hussein’s Kinjeketile(IISTE, 2014) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper examines how Ebrahim Hussein in Kinjeketile uses memory of German colonial rule in the then Tanganyika, a part of German East Africa to interrogate the encounter between the coloniser and colonised. Hussein’s play largely deploys the African belief system to represent a moment of great conflict between the German colonial administration and native Tanganyikans as the locals struggle to build national consciousness under nascent nationalism. The paper uses a new historicist approach to determine the discrepancy between fact and fiction, much as the play is based on an actual event that took place in the 1905-1907 period. It argues that the reconstruction of the Maji Maji rebellion is geared towards evoking the memory of the past to teach the present and the future generations rather than present a historical fact. Thus the paper demonstrates the power of memory in invigorating the present in relation to the future.Item Individualism and Collectivism in Ebrahim Hussein's Plays(Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili, Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, 2012) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Item INTERROGATING THE LINK BETWEEN HISTORY AND LITERATURE: INSIGHTS FROM THINGS FALL APART, KINJEKITILE AND ‘STANLEY MEETS MUTESA’(Tanzania Zamani, 2017) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Literature as representation has not only been able to capture the people’s imagination of a given epoch but has in itself constituted a historical account that goes deeper than mere representation of historical fact. As such, literature is a good tool for historical representation and examination, which complements historical records. Whereas history deals with hard historical facts, literature deals with fictionalised history inspired by historical events or imagination but in either case shaped by the society it represents. Thus, one can read a historical novel as both a fictional and factual representation of the historical fact. In this regard, the paper argues that the intersection between literature and history is inevitable because fiction uses the creative industry to represent historical events with both history and literature being products of society. Using a historical approach, this paper uses Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Hussein’s Kinjeketile and Rubadili’s “Stanley Meets Mutesa,” which represents the three key genres—novel, drama and poetry, respectively, to interrogate how history and literature are connected. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart depicts the historical encounter during the advent of colonialism. Hussein’s Kinjeketile portrays the struggle between the colonised and the coloniser in the fictionalised Tanganyika. Rubadili’s “Stanley Meets Mutesa” depicts a cruel encounter between the colonised and the coloniser with the colonised seemingly blind to the machinations of the coloniser. The three literary texts are used to illustrate the historical connection between history and literature.Item Patriarchy and Social Determinism: Interrogating Feminist Agenda in Tanzania's Neglected Poetry(Marang, 2017) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper examines poems written in English by Tanzanians from a feminist perspective. Specifically, the paper examines how Tanzanian poets in English handle feminist ideas. It interrogates how the poets address issues of human rights, dignity and equality from a feminist perspective in a predominantly patriarchal society. Through a feminist lens, the paper also delineates how the poets depict the reaction of women against masculinity and often female-gender insensitive traditional cultural beliefs which continue to subjugate and marginalise women. The paper contends that despite being ignored in terms of scholarship, Tanzanian poets in English have been preoccupied with the question of gender equality, which helps to define and place their contribution to literary and gender discourse in Tanzania. The paper concludes that Tanzanian poets in English have rhetorically been fostering the feminist agenda to undermine prevalent patriarchal norms and values. Keywords: Feminists, patriarchy, Tanzanian poets in English, masculinity, identityItem Patriarchy, Women and HIV/AIDS in Mapalala's Passed like a Shadow(UAS, 2010) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.Although HIV/AIDS affects both men and women, the infection rate amongst women over the years outstrips the number of men contracting this disease. The gravity of the situation has prompted many African writers to use the ready-made materials on HIV/AIDS in their society to create works of art. The purpose of this paper is to examine Bernard Mapalala’s short story “Passed like a Shadow” in relation to the HIV/AIDS scourge, focusing on how the story represents the women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The paper argues that the story identifies patriarchy and its attendant problems as the primary contributing factor to the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic amongst women.Item The Prophetic Vision in Kagwema’s Fear of the Unknown(SEAHI PUBLICATIONS, 2015) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.From 1967 to 1986, Tanzanians passed through a very testing period full of challenging situations against ujamaa and self-reliance-the model of social and economic development Tanzanians choose. In Fear of the Unknown-a story and a prose narrative, Prince Kagwema presents the “truth” about socialism and capitalism in an artistic way. In Fear of the Unknown, the dialogue on socialism and capitalism is presented by the diehard capitalist and an unflinching, steadfast socialist. This paper examines the role of prophecy in Kagwema’s Fear of the Unknown. The paper argues that in Fear of the Unknown prophecy is used as a driving factor of a story, a sort of motivation to the writer and an outline of where events should go. Moreover, this paper argues that through literary skills the author has managed to predict and foretell the future of Tanzania. This paper uses the sociological approach to literary criticism. Under sociological approach, the assumption is that since literature is produced in a social context then literary writers affirm or criticise the values of the society in which they live. As such, in Fear of the Unknown, Prince Kagwema, the writer addresses the social economic and the political contexts in which this literary text was produced.Item The Subversion of Patriarchy and Women’s Empowerment in Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah(Dar es Salaam University College of Education, 2016) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper builds on the arguments presented by Muriungi and Muriiki (2013) on gender-based violence (GBV) in African literature. Focusing on Ole Kulet‘s Blossoms of the Savannah, Muriungi and Muriiki furnish the particulars of Nasila culture and its effect on women in general terms. They do not explain how the novel attempts to subvert patriarchy and empower women characters. They further demonstrate the way Ole Kulet uses the novel to explore GBV among the Maasai in Kenya. As a result, the novel‘s powerful and deliberate attempt to subvert patriarchy remains largely unexplored. This study, therefore, examines how Ole Kulet‘s Blossoms of the Savannah subverts the patriarchy system of the Nasila culture to empower the projection of the female characters in the novel. In this regards, it is argued that the characters of Taiyo, Resian and Minik are manifestations of the novel‘s rejection of the patriarchy system. Consequently, the novel turns a traditional negative depiction of women into a positive depiction of women. The paper further argues that the novel uses the patriarchy system as a backdrop to subvert the system. In fact, the portrayal of women in the novel is informed by feminists‘ theory of equity between men and women, coupled with the need to foster women‘s dignity. This feminist leaning emboldens the novel‘s rhetorical agenda of subverting patriarchy to empower women characters.Item Thematic Concerns of Contemporary Tanzanian Poetry in English(ISEL, 2016) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.; Omigbule, Morufu B.This paper explores the search for identity, displacement and belonging in Allen Sawaya’s Destined to Fame. The novel destined to fame depicts the world as a site of horror and interrogates the way the notions of identity, displacement and belonging affect an individual. In the novel, Sawaya emphasizes that the notions of identity, displacement and belonging are shaped by social and political situations which in turn result into emotional experiences or attachment to the affected individual. Through the protagonist William Forster- an African adopted child living in the UK, this paper argues that even though an individual can belong to the world but that individual can not belong home. This paper uses the postcolonial theory because the issues of identity, displacement or unhomliness and belonging are central topics in postcolonial thoughts.Item The Troubleed Image of Africa in Shilia Kaaya's Poetry(Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 2017) Mwaifuge, Eliah S.This paper examines representations of Africa in Shilia Kaaya’s poetry. Kaaya’s The Bleeding Heart and other Poems (2009) features thirty-eight poems covering diverse themes. This paper focuses on ten poems which are devoted to colonialism, neo-colonialism and political problems besetting contemporary Africa. It argues that Kaaya’s poetry interrogates the dynamics of colonialism, neo-colonialism and the political problems in Africa and their effect on the development of Africa. It demonstrates how Kaaya’s poems raise salient issues about how Africa’s development — economically and politically, is undermined by both the European coloniser and Africans themselves. The Archetypal approach, which describes images found in a variety of poems written by a single poet, is applied to enhance understanding of the core message (s) of the poems.